I’ve driven past Vivisen Teahouse many times and I’ve always made a mental note to go have dinner there. Unfortunately I always forget about it when it comes to choosing somewhere to go. It’s slightly out of the way and I have a head like a sieve when it comes to remembering these things. Happily on Friday we were looking for somewhere to eat and we drove by and thought: perfect that’ll do nicely. It was hot evening and all the big windows were open which made the place feel nice and airy.

My apologies for the photos they’re not great, I only had a camera phone, but you can get the general idea of how the place looks… green.

Green-themed Vivisen Teahouse

The staff sat us immediately without a booking which was great and we went straight for the dim sum and choose five dishes. The dim sum comes in threes so if there are two of you you’ll have to fight over the remaining one. Everything we ordered was good but I though the steamed vegetarian dumplings and peking duck spring rolls were the best. The filling in the former was just delicious and the latter had plenty of duck in it plus super crisp pastry. Most of the beverages are organic and you can get goji berry tea in a cool looking transparent teapot to accompany your dim sum.

Dim Yum

You can find Vivisen’s full menu here, there’s a lot more than Dim Sum. It also scores major bonus point because it stays open late… until 10pm.

We booked the private dining room at Vivisen weeks in advance for my father’s 60th Birthday. I flew over from Melbourne to stay for the event, and when the day came around we phoned once to confirm, then my sister went around an hour before the booking to confirm in person, and drop off the wine.

When we arrived at the time we had booked and confirmed, with my father and our guests, they had given our room to someone else.

When my sister asked why they’d given the private dining room to another group, the waiter blinked coldly and said, “There were just more of them.”

They sat us all outside in the sun, before eventually inviting us in when the other group had finished eating.

Not only did they not apologise for the pathetic, greedy cock-up, but they then decided to close the kitchen while we were ordering. They insisted WE hurry up, and then closed the restaurant around us.

I will never set foot in this woeful excuse for a restaurant again.

I would discourage anyone who is considering spending money here, to give it to a restaurant that cares even one scintilla about hospitality.

It was a Sunday booking on the 8th for my father’s 60th Birthday lunch. I had booked more than three weeks prior in the private room for 1.30pm and then on the Thursday before the booking, had travelled to Fremantle to reconfirm the booking and pre-order the entrees. On the Sunday as we were all looking forward to the occasion, my partner dropped off our wine at around midday for the luncheon and called me to say that there were people dining in the room already. I spoke to a staff member who told me that as they were a bigger party he had decided to give the room to them. I didnt understand. I had confirmed twice. He said the staff member who took the booking should not have for the number we had in our party. At no time on any of the occasions were we advised of a minimum number and the booking was taken happily. The person that I ended up having to deal with on the day was the one to take the original booking.What a joke. So I made a fuss and said that we would be there at 2pm instead and expect the room to be ready. He said he cant guarantee and said please still be here at 1.30pm as kitchen will close at 2.30pm. I said I didnt care as I had organized it for my father’s special birthday lunch. Upon arrival at 2pm I was greeted by this very rude staff member who advised me in a very loud and angry voice that we would still have to wait for the room and the kitchen would not be held open. I looked around and there was not even a table in the main restaurant set for us either. I was bursting I was so angry. Finally the room was ready and after drinking a bottle of special wine that we had hoped to enjoy with food we sat down. The pre-ordered food was all slammed down moments later. So much for grazing. I asked for menus and they were reluctantly given. We ordered main courses and they were rushed out. They forgot our rice and when i requested it, a serve of luke warm rice was again slammed down. It all made sense now. I looked into the main dining room and there the staff all were eating lunch in the middle of the room. The service had stopped. They pretended we were not there. We had to retrieve our own wine from the fridges and water as well. I do not reccommend anyone visit this joke of a place. I am a manager of a successful restaurant and if I ever saw any of my staff treat a customer this way I would have them on notice. They ruined my father’s birthday. Thanks a lot Vivisen. You should be utterly ashamed of youself. Everyone I know will hear of this experience.